OH MY WORD! Where do I start. Thursday was an insanely busy day at the All England Club. The Queen and the conclusion of the John Isner/Nicolas Mahut. Which is the bigger story?
Let’s start with the Queen. Never, have I seen so many people set a twitter over a visit from the Queen. I know this is a big deal as it’s her first visit in 33 years. I think it’s obvious that she is probably not a huge tennis fan, but the royalty of Wimbledon tennis, including the top four seeds on both sides of the draw, with three-time Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick, filling in for Andy Murray who could not participate because of his scheduled match. Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova were also included in the group.
I chose not to try to photograph her in the crush of fans as she was escorted through the grounds. It was a mad scene of subjects and photographers trying to get a glimpse of her and snap a photo.
I decided that I was much better off to wait and take photos from the photographer’s pit where I had a good view of the Royal Box. Dressed in a turquoise coat, and elaborate, matching hat she did indeed look quite royal and seemed to enjoy watching Andy Murray defeat Jarkko Nieminen.
The tradition of the men bowing and women dropping into a curtsy to the royal box was dropped in 2003, however Murray and Nieminen, revived the tradition by bowing when the entered and departed. It was reported that the Williams sisters also honored the queen with a curtsy when they met her in the players enclosure.
What do I think about all this? Hmmm well, I don’t want to get into trouble here, but I’m not one to get overly caught up in the romanticism of the monarchy. I never dreamed of growing up and being swept away by a prince on a white horse, but it is rather quaint and I know the Brits love their traditions and all the pomp and circumstance.
Frankly I’m glad we’re done with it. The queen’s visit has been a huge topic of conversation the last couple of days. All the photographers were trying to plan, figure out, and jockey for the best place to get photos, stressing out about security guards surrounding her so there wouldn’t be a clear view and on and on until I had too put on my iPod and retreat into my private musical world. Truth is, I have a hard time getting too excited about this sort of thing.
What I am excited about is John Isner finally winning the longest match in tennis history! OH MY WORD. When they got to 68-all I was convinced that I was right about the twilight zone. The match was really going to go on forever.
I decided to spend the first part of the match on Henman Hill watching the match on the giant screen with the real fans. The atmosphere there was fantastic! At one point, the TV cameras trained on the fans. Everyone jumped up and down waving. The girl next to me shouted, “Look there’s my arm! My arm is on TV!” Really fun. Those people are definitely having more fun than the ones who paid a fortune for a seat on show court 18.
I was thinking about that yesterday. There we were at an amazing incredible match, both players giving their all, and there was no atmosphere. Polite applause was all they were getting. Is Andy Murray the only thing these fans can get excited about?
So, in the end, the match took a total of 11 hours and five minutes and spanned three days without Wimbledon’s famous rain delays. They went for 167 straight games without a service break and finished with a score of 70-68.
I’ll close with this quote from Isner. Ask by a reporter about his statement that it was like a dream, he replied, “I think it really is better than a dream because you can’t even dream of something like this.”
– Cynthia
[nggallery id=15]
Cynthia Lum is one of the world’s most celebrated sports photographers and has traveled the world covering all the major tennis events for 18 years. In addition to tennis she is currently shooting horse racing, golf, surfing, and beach volleyball. Visit her on-line photo archive at www.cynthialum.com where her photos are for sale for professional and personal use. She is available for hire for corporate and editorial clients. She is based in Hermosa Beach, Calif.